Poker Essen

In standard poker, each player bets according to the rank they believe their hand is worth as compared to the other players. The action then proceeds clockwise as each player in turn must either match or "call" the maximum previous bet, or fold , losing the amount bet so far and all further involvement in the hand.

A player who matches a bet may also "raise" increase the bet. The betting round ends when all players have either called the last bet or folded.

If all but one player folds on any round, the remaining player collects the pot without being required to reveal their hand.

If more than one player remains in contention after the final betting round, a showdown takes place where the hands are revealed, and the player with the winning hand takes the pot.

With the exception of initial forced bets, money is only placed into the pot voluntarily by a player who either believes the bet has positive expected value or who is trying to bluff other players for various strategic reasons.

Thus, while the outcome of any particular hand significantly involves chance, the long-run expectations of the players are determined by their actions chosen on the basis of probability , psychology , and game theory.

Poker has increased in popularity since the beginning of the 20th century and has gone from being primarily a recreational activity confined to small groups of enthusiasts to a widely popular activity, both for participants and spectators, including online, with many professional players and multimillion-dollar tournament prizes.

Poker was developed sometime during the early 19th century in the United States. Since those early beginnings, the game has grown to become an extremely popular pastime worldwide.

In the edition of Foster's Complete Hoyle , R. Foster wrote: "the game of poker, as first played in the United States, five cards to each player from a twenty-card pack, is undoubtedly the Persian game of As-Nas.

Developments in the s led to poker becoming far more popular than it was before. Modern tournament play became popular in American casinos after the World Series of Poker began, in Poker on television increased the popularity of the game during the turn of the millennium.

This resulted in the poker boom a few years later between — In casual play, the right to deal a hand typically rotates among the players and is marked by a token called a dealer button or buck.

In a casino , a house dealer handles the cards for each hand, but the button typically a white plastic disk is rotated clockwise among the players to indicate a nominal dealer to determine the order of betting.

The cards are dealt clockwise around the poker table , one at a time. One or more players are usually required to make forced bets , usually either an ante or a blind bet sometimes both.

The dealer shuffles the cards, the player on the chair to his or her right cuts , and the dealer deals the appropriate number of cards to the players one at a time, beginning with the player to his or her left.

Cards may be dealt either face-up or face-down, depending on the variant of poker being played. After the initial deal, the first of what may be several betting rounds begins.

Between rounds, the players' hands develop in some way, often by being dealt additional cards or replacing cards previously dealt. At the end of each round, all bets are gathered into the central pot.

At any time during a betting round, if one player bets, no opponents choose to call match the bet, and all opponents instead fold , the hand ends immediately, the bettor is awarded the pot, no cards are required to be shown, and the next hand begins.

This is what makes bluffing possible. Bluffing is a primary feature of poker, one that distinguishes it from other vying games and from other games that make use of poker hand rankings.

At the end of the last betting round, if more than one player remains, there is a showdown , in which the players reveal their previously hidden cards and evaluate their hands.

The player with the best hand according to the poker variant being played wins the pot. A poker hand comprises five cards; in variants where a player has more than five cards available to them, only the best five-card combination counts.

There are 10 different kinds of poker hands such as straight flush, four of a kind etc. Poker variations are played where a "high hand" or a "low hand" may be the best desired hand.

In other words, when playing a poker variant with "low poker" the best hand is one that contains the lowest cards and it can get further complicated by including or not including flushes and straights etc.

So while the "majority" of poker game variations are played "high hand", where the best high "straight, flush etc.

To summarize, there can be variations that are "high poker", "low poker", and "high low split". In the case of "high low split" the pot is divided among the best high hand and low hand.

Poker has many variations , [2] [3] all following a similar pattern of play [4] and generally using the same hand ranking hierarchy. There are four main families of variants, largely grouped by the protocol of card-dealing and betting:.

There are several methods for defining the structure of betting during a hand of poker. The three most common structures are known as "fixed-limit", "pot-limit", and "no-limit".

In fixed-limit poker, betting and raising must be done by standardised amounts. For instance, if the required bet is X, an initial bettor may only bet X; if a player wishes to raise a bet, they may only raise by X.

In pot-limit poker, a player may bet or raise any amount up to the size of the pot. When calculating the maximum raise allowed, all previous bets and calls, including the intending raiser's call, are first added to the pot.

The raiser may then raise the previous bet by the full amount of the pot. In no-limit poker, a player may wager their entire betting stack at any point that they are allowed to make a bet.

In all games, if a player does not have enough betting chips to fully match a bet, they may go "all-in", allowing them to show down their hand for the amount of chips they have remaining.

Other games that use poker hand rankings may likewise be referred to as poker. Video poker is a single-player video game that functions much like a slot machine ; most video poker machines play draw poker, where the player bets, a hand is dealt, and the player can discard and replace cards.

Payout is dependent on the hand resulting after the draw and the player's initial bet. It's single player, so you don't have to worry about looking the fool in front of your friends and family--and it's difficulty is just right for novice poker players!

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